Do all Swedish men cower away in front of their woman ? Or do at least some of them man it up sometimes ?

[John B]

It seems to me coming from the media, that Swedish woman live as masters in their country and the men just get to shut up and dress their...
boys like girls to go to school? What happened to the viking spirit?

[Wilma Swe]

Well, first of all, the viking spirit is not an exclusively male feature, viking women had to run the household for months on end while their hubbies were gallavanting off to conquer Britain! ;-)

Secondly, rumours of Swedish women's power over men are usually wildly exagerrated in international media. Sweden is still a patriarchal society in many respects, just a wee bit less so than the UK. Swedish women don't expect to boss men around all the time, they just expect the same respect and cooperation that men would expect! Also, out of Swedish listed companies, boards consist of 27% female members, while only around 1-2% have female Chairmen or MDs. In the public sector, the ratio of male/female leaders is close to 50-50. Even the European commission have a target of 40% female representation in large companies - by 2020 (second link).

Sweden does not have gender quota laws for commercial/listed companies - yet. However, after a recent outrage (see link below), the leader of the Social Democratic party has promised to introduce such legislation if they win the election.